1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel structure for mounting a headlamp cleaner. More particularly, the present invention relates to the art of having a headlamp cleaner simply fixed to a bumper.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is a headlamp cleaner including pistons having a nozzle cover and an injection nozzle at the front ends, and a cylinder for moving the pistons back and forth with respect to a bumper. Such a headlamp cleaner is fixedly mounted inside a vehicle body with screws or the like and the pistons are moved in and out of an opening formed in the bumper. While the headlamp cleaner is not in use, that is, when a jet of washing liquid is not sent to the front cover of a headlamp, the nozzle cover is used to close the opening provided in the bumper tight from the outside.
As the conventional headlamp cleaner is not fixed to the bumper but fixedly mounted inside the vehicle body, there is a possibility of an error in mounting position with respect to the bumper unless care is taken to do the work of mounting the headlamp cleaner inside the vehicle body. In case the positional deviation with respect to the bumper is great, the pistons or the injection nozzle supported by the pistons may interfere with the bumper.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a structure for mounting a headlamp cleaner so arranged as to prevent the position of pistons from deviating from that of a bumper by providing means for mounting the headlamp cleaner inside the bumper and to facilitate the mounting of the headlamp cleaner in the bumper.
In order to solve the foregoing problems, according to the invention, there is provided a structure for mounting a headlamp cleaner including pistons having a nozzle cover and an injection nozzle at front ends and a cylinder for moving the pistons back and forth with respect to a bumper, wherein the cylinder is mounted in the bumper via a bracket having mating pieces which mate with a mounting hole provided in the bumper and positioning projections which are inserted into the mounting hole and used for positioning the bracket with respect to the planar horizontal direction.
In the structure for mounting a headlamp cleaner according to the invention, the cylinder is mounted in the bumper via the bracket and the positioning of the bracket with respect to the planar horizontal direction is carried out to ensure that the cylinder is positioned in the mounting hole of the bumper via the bracket, so that the pistons or the injection nozzle supported by the pistons never interfere with the bumper.
As the bracket is mounted in the bumper by mating the mating pieces provided in the bracket with the mounting hole of the bumper, the mounting of the cylinder in the bumper is facilitated.
In another structure for mounting a headlamp cleaner according to the invention, as the bracket fixed to the cylinder has mating pieces which mate with the mounting hole of the bumper and the bracket is mounted in the bumper via the elastic members, the repulsion force of the elastic members has an effect on the mating portions between the mounting condition of the bracket in the bumper is stabilized because the mating of the mating pieces with the mounting hole becomes hardly released.
Further, in order to solve the foregoing problems, according to the invention, there is provided a structure for mounting a headlamp cleaner including pistons having a nozzle cover and an injection nozzle at the front ends, and a cylinder for moving the pistons back and forth from a bumper, wherein the bumper is provided with a substantially rectangular mounting hole having rectangular mating cutouts; the cylinder is provided with a bracket having a rectangular cylindrical fixed contact end portion which is fixed to the mounting hole; pawl portions projecting outward from the mounting hole and mating with the edge faces of the mating cutouts are provided on a pair of sides out of four sides of the fixed contact end portion, and mating positioning portions having mating plate portions mating with the mating cutouts for positioning the mounting hole with respect to three planar directions are also provided on a pair of sides out of four sides of the fixed contact end portion; and another pair of sides having open width wider than that of the mounting hole are used as contact end portions for holding the bumper together with the pawl portions by directly contacting the inside of the mounting hole.
Therefore, in the structure for mounting a headlamp cleaner according to the invention, the bracket can be mounted in the bumper only by mating the pawl portions of the mating positioning portions with the edge faces of the mating cutouts of the mounting hole of the bumper. As the mating plate portions of the mating positioning portions are simultaneously mated with the mating cutouts so as to position the mounting hole in planar directions, the mounting and positioning of the headlamp cleaner of the headlamp cleaner can also be carries out simply and simultaneously.
Moreover, as the load applied to the bracket is received by the mating plate portions and the mating cutouts, the load applied to the pawl portions is reduced with the effect of making the pawl portions become hardly damaged.